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Meetup

Genshiken

If you’ve ever wanted to be a fly on the wall around people who are passionate about anime, manga, and the culture of Cool Japan in America, here’s your chance. I attended Sushi Night this past Saturday with the Austin Anime Meetup Group, where I and 6 others enjoyed the fare at Ryu of Japan and discussed our favorite topics. I recorded much of it on video, which I’ve edited and posted below, and we took lots of pictures.

Enjoy. But more importantly, join us next time. It really is a Gendai Shikaku Bunka Kenkyukai (現代視覚文化研究会), or Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture.

Here’s the video:

Sushi Night at Ryu of Japan from Austin Otaku on Vimeo.

And here are some of the photos from the evening. We did something a little different this time around by passing around the camera and getting shots from all angles (and seeing who can’t take pictures as you’ll see in the slideshow at the end of the video).

Peace and Rabbit Ears Anime Group Discussing Anime
Emily and Anh Athrun Zala and Brian B
Maniacal Sushi Service Okonomiyaki
Austin Anime Meetup Group Eating Emily's Special Chopsticks

If you’re interested in checking out Ryu of Japan yourself, check out their website, or drop by at:

11101 Burnet Road
Austin, TX 78758
(512) 973-9498

If you want to join the Austin Anime Meetup Group, join us at our Meetup site.

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February Thursday Night Manga Meetup

by Austin Otaku on February 19, 2010

Genshiken

I’m back! It has been a long time since I’ve added any posts, mainly due to work consuming so much of my time. But I managed to make it out to tonight’s Thursday Night Manga Meetup with the Austin Anime Meetup Group. Lots of cool people showed up tonight and shared their manga. A few aspiring manga-ka were also there, drawing and showing off their skills.

Be sure to join us next month, or show up to one of the anime nights scheduled between now and then.

February-Manga-Meetup-01 February-Manga-Meetup-03
February-Manga-Meetup-08 February-Manga-Meetup-06
February-Manga-Meetup-07 February-Manga-Meetup-05
February-Manga-Meetup-04 February-Manga-Meetup-02

Here’s a quick video capture from tonight:

February Manga Meetup from Austin Otaku on Vimeo.

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Photos from the Weekend of the Otaku

by Austin Otaku on November 10, 2009

Konohana Sakuya As my last post indicated, there were some really cool events available for Austin-area otaku to plug into this weekend, starting on Thursday with the Austin Anime Meetup Group’s Thursday Night Manga meeting and culminating on Sunday with the beginning of the San Antonio Museum of Art’s month-long tribute to the genius of Hayao Miyazaki. Well, okay, that last event wasn’t in Austin, but San Antonio is only about 1 1/2 hours south on Interstate 35 … so it kind of counts. Right?

So, without further ado, I’ve compiled some pictures from all the events I went to, along with some descriptions.

Thursday Night Manga Meetup at Mozart’s

About 9 people showed up at Mozart’s Coffee Roasters next to Lake Austin on Thursday to peruse some manga and talk about things that otaku talk about.

Austin Anime Meetup's Thursday Night Manga Thursday Night Manga Meetup - 11/5 Peace! from the Thursday Night Manga Meetup

Konohana Sakuya Manga Lecture

Manga couple Kohei Nishino and Tsugumi Nishino, known collectively as Konohana Sakuya, presented a lecture on manga on Saturday, October 7th. This event, sponsored by the Japan-America Society of Greater Austin and the Japanese Consulate in Houston, attracted roughly 40 people of all ages.

Konohana Sakuya Manga Lecture 13 Konohana Sakuya Manga Lecture 2 Eri Suzuki Translates for Kohei Nishino Konohana Sakuya Manga Prints

In addition to receiving the wonderful postcard image shown at the beginning of this post (which they handed out to attendees of the lecture), I had the honor of joining the Nishino’s for coffee and dinner afterwards.

Tsugumi and Kohei Nishino, and Tomio Petrosky Eri, Tsugumi and Kohei Nishino, and Chris Tsugumi Nishino and Keith Goode at UT Kohei Nishino and Keith Goode at UT

And after dinner and drinks, I drove the Nishinos around to show them the Texas State capital building and the UT bell tower, which was lit with orange lights.

Frederik L. Schodt’s Lecture at SAMA

On Sunday, October 8th, anime scholar and author Frederik Schodt helped the San Antonio Museum of Art kick off their month-long celebration of the work of Hayao Miyazaki with his lecture “The Allure of Hayao Miyazaki.”

San Antonio Museum of Art Frederik Schodt Gives a Lecture on Miyazaki Animation Cells on Display after Frederik Schodt's Lecture Keith Goode and Frederik Schodt at SAMA

Afterwards, I headed upstairs to the Asian Art Wing to check out SAMA’s collection of Japanese art, including their current display of Yoshitoshi’s Ukiyo-e.

Yoshitoshi Ukiyo-e at SAMA Jizo Bodhisattva Statue at SAMA Samurai Armor at SAMA's Japanese Art Exhibit Aizen Myo-o Statue at SAMA

Overall, it was a great weekend. I made three new friends in Kohei Nishino, Tsugumi Nishino, and Frederik Schodt, not to mention the all the other folks I got to meet at all of the events. Stayed tuned in to AustinOtaku.com, and I’ll keep you up-to-date with any events in the future.

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Let the Weekend of the Otaku Begin

November 5, 2009
Austin Otaku

It’s Thursday, and everyone knows that Thursday is the unofficial beginning of the weekend. Well, I’m also unofficially dubbing this weekend “The Weekend of the Otaku.” There are several activities to satiate your thirst for anime and manga. In fact, I’ll be heading out shortly for the first event in the lineup. Thursday, Nov. 5 [...]

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Surviving an Advanced Sushi Workshop … With All of My Fingers Intact

November 3, 2009
Austin Otaku

On October 25th, Jorge, the sushi chef from Kenichi, came back for a second sushi workshop for the Japan-America Society of Greater Austin. Roughly 20 people showed up, equipped with razor-sharp knives, to learn how to slice up some raw fish. (Well, actually, it’s a little known fact that fish for sushi isn’t raw. It [...]

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City of Austin Trembles at News of Austin Otaku Using a Knife … Again!

October 18, 2009
Austin Otaku

Following up its successful Sushi Workshop in July, the Japan-America Society of Greater Austin will present sushi chef Jorge from Kenichi for an advanced sushi workshop on Sunday, October 25th at the Triangle Clubhouse (4700 Guadalupe St.) from 1:30pm to 3:30pm. This workshop will allow attendees of the previous workshop to build on their sushi-making [...]

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Presentation on Anime for JASGA

October 5, 2009
Austin Otaku

This evening, I presented a lecture on behalf of the Japan-America Society of Greater Austin on the topic of “Anime.”  JASGA had asked me a few weeks ago to present on this topic. Initially, I was honored that they would think I was versed enough in this aspect of Japanese entertainment  to present to them. [...]

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Upcoming Presentation: Anime and Japan’s Popular Culture

September 29, 2009
Austin Otaku

I’ve recently been honored by the Japan-America Society of Greater Austin, who have asked me to do a presentation at their October Japanese Culture Salon on the subject of “Anime and Japanese Popular Culture.” So, if you’re in Austin and interested in catching my slide show and presentation, I’ve included the details below. Since the [...]

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Austin Otaku: South Florida Edition

September 25, 2009
Austin Otaku

As I’ve mentioned before, the reason I started AustinOtaku.com was to try to make the best of wherever I live, even deep in the heart of Texas. I think this is a pretty good philosophy to have, and in most large cities in the U.S., I think this is possible, even for otaku, to find [...]

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